Bureau Report
KARACHI: The Pakistani rupee extended downward trend against the US dollar in the interbank market at the start of Friday’s trading.
According to forex dealers, the local unit depreciated by 1.73 rupees versus the greenback in the interbank market to trade at Rs 202.50 at 12:10 pm. The US dollar is being sold at over Rs206 in the open market, they said. The dollar had closed at Rs200.77 against the Pakistani rupee the other day. According to experts, the resumption of the IMF programme is a must to stabilize foreign exchange reserves.
On May 19, the dollar had reached a record high of Rs202.83 for the first time in interbank market.
The respite for the rupee had come only after the government had increased the fuel prices by a whopping Rs30 a litre, paving the way for the release of a $1 billion tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday shared that the liquid foreign reserves in Pakistan have declined by over $590 million during the week ended on June 3.
According to details shared by the SBP, the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $ 15.17 billion on June 3.
Sharing a break-up of the foreign reserves position, the central bank said that the reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan stand at US$9.22 billion while commercial banks also have reserves of US$5.95 billion.
